Gemini Dreams
by Tracey Claybon
Summary: Rated PG13 for adult situations implied. After the events of Triptych Coin Toss, an apology is tendered. TwoFace and Harvey Dent POV.


Gemini Dreams  
  
By  
  
Tracey Claybon  
  
This is kind of a POV companion or sequel to Coin Toss, one of my Triptych stories. In CT, I sort of filled in a blank that had been bothering me ever since I read the two parts of NML that gave me the idea to write that one, as disturbing as it was. You *have* to read/have read Coin Toss to understand this POV.  
  
I had planned to complete one of the other overdue stories I have in WIP status right now, - but Harvey Dent/Two-Face had other ideas.  
  
If the phrasing gets confusing as to who's perspective you're in at any particular moment - Harvey is "he" or "his" (main personality); Two-Face (alternate persona) is "it" or "its" and when the two are integrated or working together, I refer to the combined Harvey Dent as "they."  
  
Any mix-ups in POV are my own, Harvey had nothing to do with it. ::smiles::  
  
Disclaimer: I'm borrowing Harvey Dent, Renee Montoya, Batman and the other denizens of the world of the Bat for a little while and will return them to their places in the DC Universe when I'm done.  
  
On with the story. . .  
  
~ ~ ~  
  
Christmas Eve, almost one year after the Cataclysm.  
  
Harvey Dent sat on the bunk in the city jail of the recently - revived Gotham City, lost in his own thoughts. The police officers who came to check to make sure he was still there each hour on the hour had been surprised to notice that he was so very quiet, especially compared to the antics of some of the other criminals interred in the row of cells nearby- awaiting transport to Arkham Asylum or to the Slab.  
  
Even Gotham's most feared criminal, the Joker, was in high holiday spirits in his own fashion. After recovering from what had been a very serious illness in the past year and getting over the shock of being struck by Jim Gordon right after the clown shot Gordon's wife right when the NML ended, the Joker was back up to his usual manic and demented antics. Since it was Christmas Eve, he was singing a really insulting version of "Jingle Bells" that included the Bat and Bird-Boy in the lyrics - off-key; he'd been singing that horrible song, plus listening to a tape he'd been allowed to keep that had been a present from his pet obsessed stalker Harley Quinn that included songs about someone's grandma having been hit and run by Santa and a really twisted version of "the Twelve Days of Christmas" that listed in detail the annoyances that come with holiday shopping.  
  
Harvey, however, was so deep in thought that this event - which he normally found extremely annoying - didn't register with EITHER personality.  
  
One thought was echoing in Harvey's head.  
  
*She* didn't come to us. What did we do wrong?  
  
On the Two-Face side of his personality, the pain that the Harvey personality felt was felt even more strongly - and was complicated by feelings of guilt and shame - because it knew WHY she didn't come. Two-Face knew he was at fault for Harvey's agony - and he also knew that understanding of why *she* was not with them now, and had not come to see them after delivering them to the prison facility could completely destroy Harvey. Although the Two-Face personality sometimes thought that Harvey was a weakling and a wimp, it would not act to destroy Harvey, and even thought of the Harvey personality like a little brother that it would walk through fire to protect.  
  
But, like Harvey, the main personality, it wanted Renee Montoya to smile at it, look at it with love in her eyes, see Harvey/Two-Face the way a woman views *her* man, with love and passion in her eyes.  
  
And it knew exactly why she wouldn't come - and that it, not the Harvey personality - deserved the agony Harvey was feeling.  
  
It had acted on its darker impulses thinking that if it treated *her* like an object to quench the growing lust it felt, the creeping feeling that made it . . . soft would make it not desire her as much as it did. Every time it came to her in the cell it realized that what it was doing to her would make *her* eventually hate them both - not just the Two-Face personality for hurting her and taking her against her will; it knew its actions were wrong.  
  
And then the trial came and the Harvey side actually fought it with logic about Gordon's crimes - and won.  
  
And in a blinding flash, the reality of all it had done recently - especially to her - came crashing down.  
  
They had seen her once, about a week ago, since the abortive trial; she didn't realize that they were there in the area where they had kept her. She had come to the cells where she had been kept during the trial, which was where they kept them now - the Two-Face personality was not sure why she had come - she did not look like her usual poised, coolly confident self and it realized that *it* was to blame for the loss of that confidence and felt the blow in what passed for a heart in it like a hammer. As it retreated in shame for its action, the Harvey personality came to the front - and realized she was there.  
  
Harvey was aware of a fleeting sense of shame, but he was not sure why - the Two-Face personality usually felt nothing but rage or cold fury, and he also caught the scrap ends of it's thoughts - but not enough information came through for him to understand why; he decided to let Renee know he was here, and to wish her happy holidays.  
  
When Renee realized that it was *them* there - she went extremely pale under her beautiful mocha-colored skin and started to shake just a bit under Harvey's eye. Harvey found himself suddenly enraged at the person who could make *her* look like that, and decided to ask her who it was so that he could see if he could make it right the best way he knew how - and he felt he could do it without the coin's decision as well - but she blanched still more and would not tell him. Shortly after that, she practically ran away from the room - but she had kept her promise to Two-Face not to tell Harvey; instead of what passed for happiness in it, the Two-Face personality only felt strangely hollow. It had gotten what it had wanted, but it paid a Pyrrhic price for its victory.  
  
It dreamed separately from Harvey and its dreams, which had been about duality and the number 2 for so long, changed over the course of the next year. Two-Face heard crying in its dreams now. *Renee's crying,* night after night - especially the broken weeping after that first night in the cell during its imprisonment of her and her family near the end of the NML. Its dreams were very troubled and the disturbance was spreading to the Harvey personality's own dreams.  
  
After months of nightmares, it had decided to go ahead and escape, and then to see if it could talk to her, apologize for everything that had been done and make it right. It couldn't change what had happened - but it could try to make amends.  
  
It got its opportunity the summer of that year. They made their way to Renee's little brownstone in Mayfair, keeping out of sight; it had arranged for the flowers, without a signature, hoping that a note from *Harvey* might get some resolution to the good for Harvey's suit with her.  
  
It noticed when she opened the card - and then her reaction to the card.  
  
The Two-Face personality felt at that moment the closest thing to despair that it had ever felt. It had felt unending rage, lust, and myriad other violent emotions, many times, and more - for the first time, it felt . . . helpless and did not know how to go on or what to do next.  
  
So, it decided that the best thing that it could - and by extension, Harvey Dent could - do was to leave her alone. In peace. And do its best to make sure that she received no more harm because of its actions a year ago, done on impulse.  
  
After that resolution, it made a point of knowing where she was and what duties she was doing when it planned a raid. It also carried a police scanner that was kept in a location under an assumed name that was dedicated to knowing where she would be - so that when she was called to investigate, it would just withdraw from the field.  
  
It made a point of waiting until she was called to the scene of one of their crimes - then looking her right in the eye and withdrawing from the scene of the crime right after it saw her.  
  
Finally, on Christmas Day, it sent one more present to her.  
  
The gift contained three items: a broken set of handcuffs, gilded in gold, a locket of Renee's that Harvey had kept, secretly, from the items from her bedroom he had placed in the jail cell a year or so prior, to remember her by; and an unscarred double headed coin similar to the one she had caught and kept to keep the Bat and himself from fighting.  
  
The note included read: "I'm sorry.  
  
"You're free from us now, and maybe - one day - you might forgive us."  
  
~ ~ ~  
  
Renee received the last package, half afraid of what she would find there - the note didn't take away the pain of that time and could never give back what had been lost to her - but the apology meant that it was the beginning of the long road back to healing for her. Her face, tense with stress and a little fear, slowly relaxed to serene as she read the note.  
  
~ ~ ~  
  
The Two-Face personality watched her reaction, hidden from Renee's sight, not daring to show their face to her. At the slight calming of the look on her face after reading the note, it knew that although there was no real excuse - or forgiveness - for its actions, the apology could rebuild what it had taken from Renee - and at least in this respect, her life could begin to rebuild, much as the Gotham that they each knew so well and loved was now rebuilding, a year after the Cataclysm and the NML.  
  
It turned to walk away from the scene it watched - and stopped at the sight of the tall dark form of the Bat. But, instead of the usual rage it normally felt on sight for the Bat, it reacted differently this time.  
  
Batman, expecting a fight with Two-Face, was surprised to note an expression of grief and remorse - and most of all, world-weariness - on Harvey Dent's face - he was even more surprised when what was clearly the Two-Face personality looked at him and said "Not tonight, Bats. Tomorrow, we'd probably fight - but not tonight. It's Christmas. For once, let it lie and leave us alone. For what it's worth, truce - and Merry Christmas."  
  
With that, Two-Face knelt to the ground and gently put down one of his famous scratched double-headed silver coins down on the ground (he had turned it to each side to show Batman that it was one of the coins) - then Two-Face turned his back on Batman and walked away. The Batman stood in silence for a moment. After Batman realized that Two-Face *really* meant it this time, he walked over to the coin lying on the ground and took a closer look.  
  
Two-Face had placed the coin on the snow good-heads up.  
  
Batman realized that he really *did* mean it tonight; after having noticed that the police scanner was quiet tonight otherwise, he decided to take Two- Face at his word and went home himself.  
  
A truce, that night, indeed.  
  
~ ~ ~  
  
That night, both Harvey and Two-Face dreamed of her.  
  
Harvey dreamed of her as he had for some time, pleasantly, as he usually did.  
  
But, for the first time, the Two-Face personality dreamed of Renee, with a smile on her beautiful face.  
  
And Two-Face smiled in his sleep.  
  
-fin- 


End file.
